Boozy Book Club: Horns by Joe Hill

Warning: Some trigger warnings are definitely necessary for this book: there are scenes of violence, blood and gore, death, rape, and murder. Please be aware of this before listening to this episode.

Hello literaries, and welcome to another installment of Boozy Book Club! Hopefully, you’ll be enjoying a nice alcoholic beverage yourself while listening to this, which might encourage you to chime in below in the comments!

For this week, Olivia (that’s me!) recommended that we all read Joe Hill’s Horns. I first read this book when I was a senior in college (so back in 2010), and I remember loving it. At the time, I wasn’t aware that Joe Hill was Stephen King’s son, although now that I know, I can definitely see the resemblance in their topics of choice and writing style. I don’t think I would usually recommend a book about a guy who wakes up one morning with devil horns, since I’m not a horror buff, but as we discuss in this episode, this book fits better into the category of psychological fantasy, or even religious fantasy. I love the concepts that are brought to light in this story; the inner darkness of humanity (perhaps exaggerated for dramatic effect), the disconnect between life, religion, and revenge, and the psychology of small towns and the people that inhabit them.

Though this book handles some heavy issues, (mostly because the plot is centered around a murder), we also kept the discussion light and breezy when we could.We talk about the book’s intro, if the main character becomes THE devil or just A devil, and question what is the deal with the time traveling tree house. We also compare the book to the movie, which stars Daniel Radcliffe, and which Chris seemed to talk about exclusively.

This time around, it’s the usual crew, as well as a token male voice (you might remember him from the last episode of The Virgin Podcaster – feel free to ignore him).

As always, we’re open to future book recommendations, so please drop a line in the comments below! We also accept emails, Facebook comments, or tweets that we’ll read out loud. (We’ll even accept carrier pigeon, or, for this book, snakes.) You can even record your own piece and send it in. Just make sure that you’re drinking!